Self-proclaimed vigilante pedophile hunter's tactics not helpful, police say

Justin Payne walks into Toronto's Victoria Park subway station to meet the man who has been texting the 11-year-old girl he has been masquerading as online, allegedly saying he wants to meet and have a sexual encounter with her.

That's the scene in footage that self-proclaimed vigilante pedophile hunter Payne, 29, took of an encounter filmed and posted earlier this week on Facebook. It received more than 500,000 shares.

The video, which has since been taken down, is one of dozens of such bait-and-trap confrontations Payne has posted to social media over the last three years.

Payne removed the video after the man he confronted who faces no criminal charges said he would kill himself if it stayed online. But while several other such videos remain publicly available, police say they simply can't use them as part of criminal investigations.

Vigilante tactics can 'taint' police investigations

Police have to follow "very strict requirements" when it comes to gathering evidence, Det. Susan Burke told CBC News.

"How you do it, your methods for doing it, the tools you use to do it, and the fact it is gathered for use in court," Burke, who is part of the Toronto police sex crimes and child exploitation section, said. "If it's not done properly, then that can taint anything that we do.

"If we try to come in and take over an investigation that's been done, it taints our investigation. We just cannot take that to court."

Payne's confrontations are loud and emotional, captured on camera by his friend and co-worker Gerry O'Brien.

"Don't lie to me," he yells at the man in the recent video. "You came to meet an 11-year-old girl off the internet! That was me talking to you the whole time!"

In the videos, seemingly meant for a public audience, Payne looks to the camera from time to time as he speaks.

"I told him to get out of the car and meet in front of the station," Payne says. "And who did he think he was meeting? He thought I was an 11-year-old girl named Jennifer."

Finding men willing to chat with his younger online persona isn't a challenge, Payne told CBC News. He simply creates an account on an adult dating site, posts some photos of an underage girl that he claims were donated to him by the girl's parents for his vigilante work, and waits.

It isn't long before messages from men flood his inbox, he says.

'A civilian duty'

As for why Payne does what he does, he thinks police aren't doing enough to stop would-be pedophiles.

"The end goal is to get the courts to make more strict laws If I have to be the example for them to get made, then I will," he said. "It's like a civilian duty."

But police warn Payne's tactics and so-called evidence can actually prevent charges from being laid.

It can also pose a danger to Payne and others and could even result in charges of possession of child pornography for him and other such vigilantes, if they are found to have photos, video or even written exchanges of a sexual nature involving a minor.

CBC News reached out to the man in Payne's latest video, who maintains he did nothing wrong and in fact went to police himself to complain about Payne's actions.

Despite the warnings, the Toronto man says he has no intention of stopping his vigilante work. Payne said he is considering how he might better bring the information he collects to police so they can use it to lay charges if warranted.

'We're doing what we can'

But Burke says the vigilantism simply isn't helpful,

"I can't personally condone someone doing this I don't recommend it at all," the detective said,adding that more officers working on such cases could make for better results.

"We're doing what we can," she said.

"However, we have people call and say, 'This fellow is online, he's acting in a peculiar manner, here's the name that he's using online and this is where he is.' Then we may be able to use that and start our own investigation."

Burke said her best advice to parents is to monitor who their children are talking to online and to make sure contacts in their children's phones belong to people they actually know in real life.

Meanwhile, her message to other would-be vigilantes inspired by Payne is simple: "Please don't. It really does not help us."